Real Estate Photo Tips

Increase Buyer Offers by Taking Great Real Estate Photography

When selling your home, real estate photos have much of the power. Great real estate photography will allow you to increase your price, help to attract more people and improve your marketing exposure. Here are some tips for taking photos to help sell.

Remove the Clutter

Clutter makes it hard to see the room so remove it before taking any photos. The rooms need to look presentable. Empty rooms are much easier to work with but it is possible to attract with furniture. Make sure all pieces match each other and the style of the home; avoid mixing old and new.

For those renting unfurnished, the photos should reflect that, so remove all items. The only time you could consider them is if they help to add character and style.

De-personalise the home by removing magnets, photo frames and decorations. It is harder to draw in buyers and renters. It is easy enough to hide them in cabinets and drawers for the photographs.

Whether furnished or unfurnished, it is possible to make it look great through staging. When including furniture, it all needs to match. You could look at painting old pieces to update them and make them match. Avoid many different types of materials; they lead to clutter. When it comes to attracting buyers and renters, less is definitely more.

Staging companies are available for empty properties. These companies are excellent if you rent for $2000 per month or more. Property managers are divided on the view of staging. Some see it as a way to stand above the other listings while others see it as a low-return investment. Whichever one you view it as, it is worth being a consideration.

Avoid too many colors in the home and keep it neutral. Brown, gray, white and tan are excellent options; you can also opt for pale and non-vibrant blues. Re-painting your home makes it look like new and is one of the most affordable options; it just takes time.

Keep the decoration around the home simple and clean. Think of fruit bowls and set the dining table, if there is one.

Opt for a Wide-Angle Lens

Now your home is ready for its a virtual tour and pictures. You just need to decide on the type of photography equipment to use. When it comes to small rooms, wide-angle lenses are the best option. They help to make the room look bigger without stretching the photo.

Full frame cameras with rectilinear wide-angle lenses are great options. Consider the Canon 5D with the Sigma 120in lens. If budget is not a problem, consider medium format cameras for the best real estate photography. Yuri Arcurs, a top-selling stock photographer, states that his best results are from photography with a medium format camera and wide-angle lens. However, full frame cameras also offer good real estate photos.

As well as rectilinear and wide-angle lenses, think about fish eye lenses. These offer a curvature to the photos to curve any straight lines (rectilinear lenses do the opposite). While a real estate photographer may prefer the rectilinear lens because it offers a more realistic look, there is software available to help correct the curvature added with the fish eye. Adobe Photoshop is just one option to help correct the real estate photography; or you can opt for Apple Aperture, DxO Labs DxO Optics and Adobe Lightroom.

Taking Photos at Twilight

A good real estate photographer knows the importance of light. Having the best type of lighting will help the photos stand out from all the rest. The majority of shots are taken during the day but there are benefits of opting for twilight, including the cool colors in the sky.

To make the most of this type of real estate photography, you need to find out the time of sunset. This is easy through search engines by searching for your location and sunset time. Get ready to take the photos just as the sky starts to turn blue. You usually have about an hour to take the perfect photos before it becomes night time so you need to be ready. Remember your tripod for any long exposure shots.

If KM3 Media can help you determine more about online marketing, please email us at kyle@km3media.com, call us at 916-517-0029 or visit our website at www.km3media.com. We would love to help!